traditional knives in movies

I recently started watching the series Snowpiercer (related to but separate from the 2013 film of the same name). I really did not expect to spot any traditional pocket knives in this show, but three episodes in there's an Opinel being used to slice an apple. The handle, to me at least, looks more like their olive wood models than the standard beechwood, which would make the blade stainless.

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I enjoyed the movie, but couldn't get into the series.
It didn't grab me right away, seemed like a show that needed some time to develop.

I agree, John. I didn’t expect much the first time I watched the movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. I liked it.

I think the show is visually interesting and well-made in that aspect, but the writing, plot and some of the acting is just ok.
 
In the movie Terminal, there are a few different scenes in which Tom Hanks' character uses a stag handled camp knife/multitool.

The knife can first be seen when he takes it out of a small box in his luggage. The top of the box is in the bottom left of this screenshot (grey box with a dark blue rectangle and white Cyrillic letters on it; I'll get back to those in a minute). Here are a couple angles of the knife as he turns it in his hands.

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They aren't great close-up shots, but you can still see several features on the knife: multiple blades including a corkscrew on the back, stag handles, small round shield and a bail.

Shortly after this, you can see Hanks' character using the bottle opener/flat-head screwdriver to disassemble and airport bench.

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Then there's another quick shot of the knife sitting in the bottom of an electrical panel.

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Finally, later in the movie, you get a slightly better (although brief) look at the knife.

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Now I figured this had to be a real knife that exists out there somewhere. The only tool every opened in the film in the bottle opener/screwdriver, so there's no reason they'd need a prop knife with a dull blade or anything like that (and that would be a complicated prop to make when you could just use a real knife).

I decided to try and search the Cyrillic letters on the box in the first scene, so I set up a Russian keyboard on my phone and started typing them out. Turns out that screenshot was only missing the last letter (and part of the O before it), and Google kindly helped out by finishing it up for me: АРМЕЙСКИЙ НОЖ. Searching that gave me a lot of image results of fixed blade knives, most of which were military fighting-style knives. Ok, at least we're on the right track. I added "in English" to the search. Turns out "АРМЕЙСКИЙ НОЖ" translated into English is "army knife." Well, that's pretty generic, and at this point I'm thinking that the box, unlike the knife, is probably just a prop.

Eventually, though, it dawned on me that I'm pretty sure I've seen this knife before, and a quick search of "Böker camp knife" all but confirmed it. I'm about 98% sure that's what it is. The layout of the blades looks right, the bail, the shield, the placement of the pins, even the shape of the bottle opener; it all seems to check out. Zooming in on the second screenshot above, I feel like you can even (just barely) make out the shape of the tree on the shield.

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Eventually, though, it dawned on me that I'm pretty sure I've seen this knife before, and a quick search of "Böker camp knife" all but confirmed it. I'm about 98% sure that's what it is. The layout of the blades looks right, the bail, the shield, the placement of the pins, even the shape of the bottle opener; it all seems to check out. Zooming in on the second screenshot above, I feel like you can even (just barely) make out the shape of the tree on the shield.

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Yep, they're nice knives :) Thanks for all your contributions to this thread Barrett :) :thumbsup:
 
The Night Flyer (1997). Miguel Ferrer uses a switchblade as a utility pocketknife.

Saturday Night Fever (1977). “Double J” (Paul Pape) pulls out a switchblade before a fight with The Barracudas street gang.

In an episode of the British comedy series Doc Martin, there is a Victorinox SAK (a Spartan?). IIRC, it was in an episode where he’s held hostage by a strange family.

Jim
 
The Night Flyer (1997). Miguel Ferrer uses a switchblade as a utility pocketknife.

Saturday Night Fever (1977). “Double J” (Paul Pape) pulls out a switchblade before a fight with The Barracudas street gang.

In an episode of the British comedy series Doc Martin, there is a Victorinox SAK (a Spartan?). IIRC, it was in an episode where he’s held hostage by a strange family.

Jim

Love that show!!!

I also recall another episode where the Doc had to do an emergency trech job on a choking victim laying on a hillside. He needs a knife, and is handed a SAK by someone standing by. Maybe even the same knife from prop department.

Karen and I have been watching shows on Narrow boating on Amazon Prime, and Kevin Shelly carries a SAK. Not sure what model, but a thick one, like a huntsman. Uses it on a few episodes to open a package, while doing maintenance on his boat, Aslan.
 
While the Schrade Scrimshaw trapper from Silence of the Lambs has been mentioned several times in this thread, I don't think this one from the 2002 prequel, Red Dragon, has ever come up. The films antagonist uses a switchblade to open a bundle of newspapers.

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There's also a slight continuity error here. Just 10 seconds after the shot above, the knife is shown again... except it's a completely different knife. Different blade, different bolster, different vestigial cross-guard.

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No movie, just one local place that survived, the Louqsor Pathé where I spent hours watching tons of movies when I was a teen ager. Antique Egyptian style in and outside (but you still face the screen :D), not the best place to show a knife (Barbès station).

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